For years I've been a big fan of T-mobile, namely because they have had this quiet little service called Wi-Fi calling. Wi-Fi calling is great as it lets you connect to a Wi-Fi network, in areas where the cell coverage is bad, and let you use the Wi-Fi network as a cell network. In essence, it's Voice over IP for your cell phone. But, not only does it help in areas of poor cell signal, but internationally. I've sat on my phone for hours while sitting in some far away land and not having to pay a penny to roam, it's simply genius. Of course, the drawback was when you actually had to leave the Wi-Fi area, you return to the land of high data rates and calling rates.

Well, not anymore. This week, T-mobile announced it was going to extend free data (throttled at 128Kbps) in over 100 countries. In these same countries, voice rates would drop to $.20/minute, down from the current $.99-$2.49/minute. It also includes free calls to local land-lines, so when you're in London and you need to call to make a reservation - no charge. With these rates, there is very little reason to get a prepaid SIM if you're visiting any of these countries.

The list of countries is:

This is exciting news for me and I'm quite glad that I've stuck with them through all these years.